defining irregular stock for CAM operations

[Anonymous]

I've been watching some of the training videos on CAM and have a question about stock definition.

I am working on an art project which involves milling faces into irregular stock, in this case blocks of split firewood. 

the faces are being sourced as .stl files from thingiverse and meshmixer, and imported into Fusion 360 -
I think I understand a prototype workflow for generating the models required.

The other half is appropriately executing the models into the material.

my working assumption, which I need to try, is this: 

• I make a 3d scan of the irregular stock (a.k.a the piece of firewood) and import that into Fusion also,
• I then use that model of the stock  to ensure the face model will fit appropriately into it,
• I use that model of the stock as the defintion of the stock in the CAM setup, ensuring an appropriate toolpath

A search on the usual fora did not turn up anything on this topic... although I admit my google-fu may have been hampered by a lack of the appropriate keywords.

Has anybody seen a tutorial or a screencat on how to do this sort of thing? 

it would be very helpful if one were available so I could see the steps involved.

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Im not sure I totally follow, but if you are just trying to define your stock from a 3D model, you should be able to just go to the Stock tab during the operation definition then under mode click "From Solid".

If this is not what you were after, I apologize.

[HughesTooling]

Something that might be a problem is you can't use a mesh as stock, actually it looks like the CAM workspace doesn't see meshes at all. You'll need to convert the mesh to a brep before you can use it and I'm not sure how well that will work on a mesh with a lot of faces.

Mark

[Anonymous]

I have to do the same thing for the faces I am carving, as they all originate as meshes as well.

so if it is just a matter of converting meshes to BREPS, might be ok.

I do still need some help as I have consistently failed in the workflow to get to an actual solid;

I always end up with a collection of surfaces instead, which I cannot seem to stitch or merge together.

I don't really understand why this is the case, but I assume it has to do with the meshes and the limitations of fusion in dealing with them.

any advice you could offer in how to get to a solid would also be greatly appreciated...

[HughesTooling]

This thread might help, the last post on page 2 has some info that might be useful.

Mark

Edit you might get more help in the design forum on working with meshes.

[Anonymous]

Yes, I am using that tool already. 

it is very useful, but not bulletproof. 

Notto worry, I am asking questions over in design too, 

but I've been encouarged to overcommunicate my needs by how helpful people have been in the fora generally....

like you have been, and I am very appreciative of it.